The Australian aboriginal

by Herbert Basedow

Fig. 7. Stone phallus, Northern Kimberleys, Western Australia (× 1/2).

One often reads, and I was under the same impression myself until I became better acquainted with the tribes, that the Australian natives do not connect the knowledge of conception with any intercourse which might have taken place between the sexes. This I find is not altogether correct, although usually the younger people are kept in complete ignorance on the subject. No doubt strangers are treated similarly when they put any pertinent questions to the old men on matters of sex. The old men believe in the duality of human creation, the spiritual and the material; sexuality is regarded as the stimulus of corporeal reproduction, but the spirit quantity is derived through mystic and abstract influences controlled by a “totem”-spirit or Knaninja. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising to note that the ceremonies of the phallus are transacted principally by the old men of the tribe who aim at the rejuvenation of their waning powers.

It is interesting to see the old men preparing for a ceremony which is to be dedicated to a Knaninja or Spirit of Sex, because they all endeavour to conceal the white hairs of their beards by rubbing powdered charcoal into them. The bark of the cork tree (Hakea) is used for the purpose; pieces of it are charred, crushed between the palms, and applied where needed. It is astounding what a difference this process makes to the appearance, and some of the old grey-beards really look as though they had been made twenty years younger by magic.

In the eastern MacDonnell Ranges stands a cylindro-conical monolith whose origin is believed to be as follows: Many generations ago, the paternal ancestors of the Arunndta walked from a district situated, as near as one can gather, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Ediowie; they were known as the “Kukadja,” and were characterized by the enormous dimensions of their organs. These old men or Tjilba of the tribe migrated northwards to beyond Tennant’s Creek and settled in the productive “Allaia” country which surrounds the Victoria River. In that same district one finds, even at the present day, cave drawings of human beings with the anatomical peculiarities referred to ([Fig. 8]). At a later time, the head-man of the Kukadja, named “Knurriga Tjilba,” returned southwards to the Macdonnell Ranges. While roaming the hills, he espied two young women sitting on the side of a quartzite cliff, and without deliberation began to approach them. He was in the act of making lewd overtures when the guardian of the girls, a crow ancestor, caught sight of him and hurled a boomerang at him. The missile struck the great man and cut off the prominent portion of his body, which in falling stuck erect in the ground. The force of the impact was so great that the man bounced off the earth and fell somewhere near Barrow’s Creek. He bled so profusely that a clay-pan soon filled with his blood. Thus his followers found him, and overcome with sorrow they opened the veins of their arms to mix their blood with his. Then all the members of the party jumped into the pool and disappeared for ever.

Fig. 8. Ochre drawing of “Kukadja” men, north of Wickham River, Northern Territory (× 1/3).

The severed portion of the old man’s body, however, remained just where it fell and turned to stone. It has long been known as “Knurriga Tjilba Purra.”

The two young women can also still be detected in the cliff as prominent rock formations.

The stone has been protected by the tribe as long as the old men can remember, because they realize that it contains an inexhaustible number of unborn tribes-people. These mythic, foetal elements are generally recognized to exist in certain objects of phallic significance, and are called “rattappa.” The medicine men maintain that they can at times see the dormant living matter in the stone. It is on that account that it is regarded as sacred, and every now and then very secret and worshipful ceremonies are transacted near its base, the main objects of which are to multiply the future membership of the tribe and to preserve the sexual powers of the old men.